Spaghetti
by vegi burger
Summary: She had seen him like this before, the day he came to her school and found out she was his daughter. April talks to Luke when he comes back to the diner. A short fillin for 6.12


April Nardini hadn't known her father for very long, but when he came back into the diner, after talking to the not-strangler, even she could notice something was wrong. His face was pale and his eyes were wide, and the way he moved insinuated walking was a bit too much for him to handle at the moment. She had seen him like this before, the day he came to her school and found out she was his daughter. Not that she saw it as such a big deal.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah, jeez!"

She cleared out a room for him at a near by table, and hurried to get him some coffee while he settled into a chair. She got a cup and started pouring, when the power of speech finally returned to him

"No."

"No?"

"No, thank you, I don't drink coffee."

"Oh. Mom doesn't either. Do you want something else?"

"This is not how it was supposed to be…"

"The salt? Am I doing it wrong?"

"The salt is fine, it's…"

"The woman?"

"Lorelai."

"Your wife?"

"Fiancé."

"She's pretty."

"She's beautiful."

Well, that couldn't be the problem.

"She didn't know, did she?"

"No."

"You didn't tell her?"

"No."

"You should have told her."

"Yeah, I should have"

He sighed deeply. She wasn't sure what to say. She wasn't good with all this emotional stuff. She didn't mean to cause any trouble. She sat next to him.

"Why didn't you tell her?"

He shook his head with frustration, "I don't know… I meant to… I wanted to… It's just hard, you know?"

"No."

"You don't know?"

"Not really…"

"Wasn't there ever something you needed to tell… I don't know… to your mom, but you kept delaying it because you weren't sure how she'd react?"

"When I did something bad, sure, sometimes."

"So you do know?"

"No, not really. You didn't do anything bad, did you?"

"I'm not…"

"You didn't know about me. It's not your fault."

"It's just… complicated."

"I guess."

She let out a little sigh of her own, when finally hit with an example that seemed to fit the kind of situation he was talking about, "I didn't tell mom about my science project until it was done. I wasn't sure how she'd react."

"How did she react?"

"She was mad."

"Oh."

"I wasn't even sure if I was going to tell her at all, but then you showed up at the fair and I realized I probably should…"

"Yeah, I guess I sort of messed up your plans…"

"She would have found out anyway. It's okay."

"You didn't expect me to show up there, did you?"

"No, I didn't. You didn't expect me to show up here, right?"

"No, I didn't."

Looking at him, she was struck with sudden realization of what a shock this must have been for him. While she always knew she had a father, that being a predetermined condition to the whole 'being created' process, he had no way of knowing he had a daughter. Maybe it was a bigger deal than she thought it was.

"I'm sorry if I, uh, 'messed up your plans'. I didn't mean to. I just really wanted to beat Samuel Pilodsky. And I didn't even win."

"It's okay."

"The spaghetti wasn't even that good."

"It's okay."

"Is it?"

"So you didn't win the fair. Big deal, right? You got a father instead." He got up, looking a little better now, "And I, if I may say so myself, make great spaghetti. Split order, right? Half mushroom and…"

"Half muenster cheese."

"Coming right up!"

He remembered. Who cares about Samuel Pilodsky! It was still too soon to know for sure, but she had a sneaking suspicion she couldn't have found a better father if she created him in her uncle's lab.

"Uh… Luke? Da…Luke?" she called after him, already on his way to the kitchen.

"You don't feel like spaghetti?"

"I do, I just… It'll be all right with her, your fiancé, Laura-lee?"

"Lorelai. You think?"

"Yeah, I think so. She seems nice…"

"She is nice."

"And you're nice. You love her. She loves you."

"How do you know that?" he paused, looking at her questioningly.

"She agreed to marry you, didn't she?"

"Actually, she proposed…" his pale face seemed to redden as his eyes twinkled.

"Well, there you go. It's simple."

"Yeah?"

"Mom forgave me. And, now I'm gonna get some good spaghetti. Things turned out okay."

She hoped he got where she was going. She wasn't used to speaking in insinuations.

The smile he gave her told her she did it right.

"Yeah, they did." he nodded," They will. Now, what would you like to drink?"


End file.
